The American Daunting. (pt.2) Global Climate Change

Even though Mr. Al Gore will never read my blog, I feel I owe him as well as others an

apology. I recently posted on facebook that I thought Al Gore was nothing but a Global

Warming alarmist who has stretched the science only to get more people on board. The

truth is, I was wrong about Al Gore and he was wrong in his documentary, An

Inconvenient Truth. Looking at more recent studies of Climate Change, one would see

that the effects from warming and deforestation have been acting much faster then

estimates in his film.

Biodiversity is facing a serious problem. This problem, known

mainly as Global Warming, is backed up by an overwhelming scientific consensus. The

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is open to all member countries of the

United Nations (UN) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). There are at

present 194 nations all in agreement with the anthropogenic cause to climate change.

In an IPCC article they state...

Emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and of

reactive gases such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon

monoxide and hydrocarbons, which lead to the formation

of secondary pollutants including aerosol particles and

tropospheric ozone, have increased substantially in response to

human activities. As a result, biogeochemical cycles have been

perturbed signifi cantly. Nonlinear interactions between the

climate and biogeochemical systems could amplify (positive

feedbacks) or attenuate (negative feedbacks) the disturbances

produced by human activities.

The amplifying (positive feedback), is warming caused from the emissions of greenhouse gases and deforestation. The attenuating (negative feedback), is cooling caused by the secondary pollutants from aerosol particles. If it wasn't for the negative feedback the warming effect would have come at a much greater speed and we would have already seen a warming of a couple of degrees.

The conclusion that global warming is mainly caused by human activity and will continue if greenhouse emissions and deforestation are not reduced has been endorsed by more than 75 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. NASA Goddard Institute, the American Meteorological Society, International Union for Quaternary Research, and the Australian Coral Reef Foundation to name only a few. I am sad to report that this overwhelming global consensus towards anthropogenic warming does not reflect the number of the American population that do.

In November, 2009, Rasmussen found that a majority of Americans, about 52% do not believe there is such a broad consensus among scientific organizations. This is bad news considering over 25% of the human co2 emissions are caused by our industries and automobiles. We are in need of governmental leadership to make regulations to put industry on the right path but if the people of this great nation are not behind it, rarely any politician will act for fear of losing their next election. Corporations survive by profit and if these energy producers do not see the consumers lining up demanding clean energy they will not act on it. We the people seem to only care about renewable energy when oil prices soar and no government or corporation seems to want to jump in on our irrational whims. So what can we do if people will stay ignorant to the science?

Other then educating people about the effects and global scientific consensus about climate change, we can show them another benefit to switching to green energy. As I stated in part one of this blog post, we are in a global recession. Our economy is now coming back from the brink but unfortunately it has remained a jobless recovery so far. The US, known for it's leading edge in innovation needs to step up once again and begin it's groundbreaking work into a new era of sustainable green energy. Which would create new jobs. This may seem contradictory considering the main known reason for clean energy is to reduce our greenhouse gases, but the proverbial looks have been deceiving.

Oil, natural gases and coal are not only a problem because it speeds up global warming but it has been funding the oppression of middle easterners for many decades and there is also an enormous demand for fossil fuels coming from developing nations across the globe.

The purchasing of our major resource, petroleum, have come from petrodictatorship countries that consume all the money and leave it's people in impoverished conditions. These countries have also been known to supply money, weapons and military training to terrorists groups who have a deep seeded hatred towards the west. It is a moral imperative for us to step away from our dependence on these countries for our addiction to their resources. They are oppressing their people from the freedoms we enjoy here and causing a greater imbalance between our two very different worlds. This can breed hatred towards the countries of the west which in turn can expand the number of members in terrorist groups who are trying to destroy our very way of life. We need to find a way to stop funding oppression and our own destruction.

Due to the quick and overwhelming surge in GDP within developing nations, many of their citizens are climbing the ladder of progress to the middle class. Nations such as China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa have been on a steady incline of wealth after they each on their own time opened up their markets to free trade. This globalisation, though criticised often for political gains here in the US, has been a good solution to poverty in the rest of the world. More people are consuming products and living successful lives across the globe then ever before. This is the main reason energy costs in the US have been getting higher and the problem will not stop as the demand grows. The problem is that their has been a exponential demand for fossil fuels, as well as meat, paper products and plastics which all have a major impact on our environment. Now more then ever, deforestation is taking a severe turn for the worst and fossil fuel demand is much higher causing more greenhouse gases to escape into the atmosphere. This too should be a wake up call for Americans concerned about climate change, but 52% of us are not concerned about it as a real science.

So with the growing wealth among petrodictators due to our addiction and the excelling demand for fossil fuels from the rapid birth of globalisation we can now say, climate change or not, we desperately need to develop a sustainable energy program in the US. The nation who develops this new green energy technology will be the economic leader of tomorrow. I propose that the US breaks through this arrogant idea that we will always be the world leader by taking a good look around the globe and seeing how other nations are growing around us. Our complacency will be our demise if we do nothing. If we do not develop sustainable energy, some other nation will. It could be China, Japan, India, or the UK but no matter who it is, they will exceed in the global market and have a higher GDP then all other nations buying their ultimate innovation. There have been many books written on this subject such as The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria and Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman and I urge people to buy them and learn about these issues from greater minds then myself.

Are we going to break from our arrogant bubble, see the upcoming problems and develop the green revolution or will we sit around while the rest of the world catches up, only to pass us? It your choice America. I choose we get off our asses and do something for our country, our planet and our future.